Chapter 15 - The Post Drug War Era

Summary

The War on Drugs failed and public opinion is turning against punishing marijuana users in much of the world and within the US. Individual states have become the “laboratories of democracy”, beginning with California’s legalization of medical marijuana in 1996. Latin American countries have become less likely to accept US military assistance to combat drug production. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 without experiencing increased rates of use and Uruguay legalized marijuana in 2013. In 2016 the UN declared the War on Drugs a failure while calling for “an end to the criminalization and incarceration of users….” In 2011 the California Medical Association (CMA) proposed a regulated legal marijuana market and the California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) proposed a public health framework emphasizing directing tax revenue to services for adolescent substance users. Colorado and Washington state legalized marijuana in 2012, Oregon in 2014 and California in 2016. Implementation of the new industry is currently having difficulty suppressing the previously existing underground market. It still remains to be seen whether a legal marijuana industry that pays for whatever damage its products produce in vulnerable populations can successfully replace an illegal market already in place for years.